The Kukai Foundation is a non-governmental organization headquartered in the Confederation of the New Free Planets Alliance dedicated to "the defense of freedom and the preservation of the rights of sentient life." It is one of the largest employers in the Alliance, and despite being ostensibly a non-profit organization, is one of the largest corporations in the Alliance by revenue and expenditures. It combines the functions of an exploratory expedition, humanitarian organization, and private military contractor into a single organization allowing it to operate independently of government support to carry out its mission.

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The Kukai Foundation was founded shortly after the creation of the New Free Planets Alliance to produce medical equipment for use in field hospitals and other front-line posts engaged in treating those left wounded and/or homeless by the chaos of the Unification Wars, particularly in the former Aktin Empire, which suffered the greatest devastation. Originally focused on the production of dermal regenerators, the Foundation quickly branched out to all manner of medial equipment, and soon began to send technicians to operate its own equipment to alleviate the strain on trained medical personnel. Within four years it was operating entire hospitals, from technicians to physicians and even security personnel, from which the Foundation would begin to branch out into its present form.

Although founded by a number of prominent government officials and military officers, the Kukai Foundation is not state-owned and is a wholly private organization. Initial funding was provided out-of-pocket by the founding members and was then sustained through licensing fees as the Foundation began to accrue a large number of patents on modern medical equipment. As the reconstruction of the former Aktin lands began in earnest, the Foundation began to transition to a more stable financial system, expanding into construction services to provide additional revenue to sustain its hospitals, which were operated at a net-loss in order to provide medical care for those that were left dispossessed after the wars. Construction and private security became the two fastest-growing segments of the Foundation, and also provided the basis for its mission change from a niche organization focused on the production of medial equipment to a sprawling empire dedicated to the advancement of sentient life.

Kukai Foundation headquarters station.

With a source of income now largely secure, the Foundation began to overhaul itself for larger-scale operations. Its headquarters were moved from New Heinessenpolis to a newly constructed colony in orbit, and its organizational structure was realigned to bring it in line with that of a modern corporation. The largest benefactors were invited to the Board of Governors, and Uruza Planeis was chosen as the Foundation's Director and Chairwoman. As the Star Fleet began to probe the space surrounding the Arzor Starzone, the Kukai Foundation began to expand its resource-gathering operations into these newly-charted systems to provide itself with the resources necessary to sustain its humanitarian operations as well as its financial income. These resources also provided the economic base from which the Foundation was able to prosper during the Second Industrial Revolution that pushed many industrial conglomerates out of business by allowing the Foundation to reduce its construction costs to a competitive level in the face of an influx of new resources.

By 2004, however, the Foundation was still predominantly engaged in humanitarian work, and aside from basic private security, did not engage in the private military contracting that it is best-known for today. During the Reaper-Omega War, the Foundation began to arm its supply ships as they conducted supply runs between Earth and the Alliance homeland. While none of the convoys were actually attacked and had little chance of surviving against a concerted assault or ambush by a hostile navy, these armed merchantmen were the forerunners of the current Kukai Foundation Security Forces. After the conclusion of the War, the Kukai Foundation successfully lobbied for a modification in the weapon restriction laws of the Alliance, which at the time prevented the private ownership of armed military vehicles of either ground- or space-type. The new laws allowed for the possession of such vehicles provided they were regularly inspected and utilized only in actions authorized by the Alliance government.

With these concessions secured, the Kukai Foundation began to invest in escorts for its Earth-Arzor convoys, first purchasing a number of decommissioned destroyers from the Star Fleet but later developing its own designs as well as purchasing ships from private design firms. The Foundation's first steps toward a proactive security policy were taken in late 2007, when the Foundation began to actively send small destroyer patrols to destroy or capture pirate bases, rather than simply fending off the attacks when the pirates came after the convoys. In late 2008, the Foundation took its first interventionist steps on the international stage when a force of Foundation destroyers intervened in a minor conflict between the Mre'en and the Seren, two races on different worlds in a binary star system close to Alliance space. The Mre'en had gained the upper hand against their neighbors and prepared to bombard the Seren homeworld when the Foundation intervened at the order of destroyer group leader Photios Alexis. Halting the attack by disabling the Mre'en ships, Captain Alexis was hailed as a hero by many in the Alliance for his actions.

This led to a fundamental shift in the Foundation's operations as it began to intervene more regularly in international affairs, although carefully staying away from nations with which the Alliance has formal diplomatic relations. In response, the Foundation began to build a larger private security force, and it is now the largest private military force in the Alliance, second only to the Defense Force itself in terms of personnel and funding. Presently, the Foundation sustains itself through the sale of equipment, including its still-important medical equipment, as well as the patenting of new devices developed in its development laboratories. It still maintains a presence in the private security industry, although most of its security personnel are employed directly by the Foundation itself for actions abroad.

The Kukai Foundation itself serves as an administrative holding company for its subsidiaries, which themselves are a mix of non-profit organizations and for-profit corporations. It is governed by a twelve-man Board of Governors initially chosen from the twelve largest donors at the Foundation's beginning, but hereafter selected by the Alliance Supreme Court as laid out in the Foundation's charter. Membership in the board has changed very little however, as term limits are not in effect and board members may serve as long as they wish. Day-to-day affairs in the Foundation are managed by the Director, who is elected by a vote of the board members.

Despite its close ties to the government and military, the Kukai Foundation has no official ties to the Alliance government, and does not receive any sort of government subsidy or grant. It does competitively bid on government contracts alongside other service providers though, mostly focusing on areas in which its board members are not focused, to assuage fears of an unfair advantage. Different subsidiaries of the Foundation are operated under different rules according to their status, but most are wholly owned by the Foundation, and those that are not still retain the Foundation as their controlling shareholder.

One of the oldest mining conglomerates in the Alliance, the Alliance Resource Extraction Company (AREC) operates mining and resourcing operations throughout Alliance space and in unclaimed territory, providing resources to the voracious Alliance manufacturing industry. It is tasked specifically with providing resources for Kukai Foundation projects, but mines a surplus for sale on the open market to remain profitable. Like most Alliance industrial corporations, it is relatively small in terms of manpower as its resource operations are almost entirely automated.

The construction arm of the Kukai Foundation, Deep Space Engineering (DSE) provides manpower and engineering expertise for construction projects large and small. It was initially created to serve as a reconstruction contractor for former Aktin lands under the name Recovery Solutions, but after expanding its operations into space-based construction, changed its name to Deep Space Engineering. DSE was the prime contractor for the completion of the Solar Power System around Arzor, and holds the contract for continued maintenance of the system. DSE is also responsible for a number of urban development projects as well as space station construction. It maintains a relatively small manpower pool and instead focuses on the use of autoconstructors to assemble the necessary pieces once the design has been laid out.

A subsidiary of Deep Space Engineering, Exigo Transportation specializes in the planning and construction of transportation infrastructure, from maglev train lines and infrastructure to star ferries and orbital elevators. Its most notable project is the completion of the Trans-Pacific Transit Network, a vast array of underground maglev trains linking the Alliance Earth colonies in the Pacific into a single rail network. Exigo also aided in the construction of the Cambrian Memorial Space Fountain in Iola and the construction of the Stornkold Mass Driver in the Stornkold Special Administrative Region.

The Kel-Morian Industrial Combine specializes in the production and sale of consumer goods on the civilian market, manufacturing appliances, vehicles, and all manner of other consumer products. It also produces appliances and vehicles for corporate use, including heavy-lift vehicles and industrial machinery.

Kukai Defense itself is a holding company controlling three major subsidiaries engaged in the manufacture of weapons, predominantly for the Defense Force but also for police forces and some export purchases. Kukai Defense is also largely responsible for development of the armaments used by the Foundation's own private security forces.

The largest of the three major subsidiaries, Hanzen Dynamics is one of the largest defense contractors in the Alliance, being the primary designer of the MBT-01 Cerebrese tank, a support designer of the M30-series multipurpose vehicles, and the producer of the Defense Force's AM-05 infantry exoskeleton. It was first created as a producer of exoskeleton systems used by battlefield medics but soon branched out into weapons development, becoming one of the largest producers of ground-based military equipment in the Alliance.

Kerla Aerospace is a relatively new defense contractor that won acclaim for its new FFR-series fighters, which replaced the older Generation I fighters in use by the Ground Force. Riding on this success, Kerla Aerospace has been pushing into the commercial and export markets, as well as into the development of transport and bomber aircraft.

Miramar Innovations is a firearms company specializing in small arms for military and police use. Its current signature product is the M87 pistol, which combines small-caliber light ammunition as well as heavier ammunition in an electrically-fired package, allowing for flexible response in a combat situation. The M87 was recently adopted as one of the Defense Force's standard pistols, although Miramar also manufactures a number of other small arms for police and civilian use.

The second-oldest division in the Foundation, Kukai Medical Services Corporation was spun off to market medical devices for direct sale to hospitals and consumers in a for-profit manner, rather than the non-profit manner in which the Foundation ran its own charitable hospitals. It is the largest manufacturer of medical equipment in the Alliance, making all manner of equipment from field dressings to dermal regenerators to bio-prosthetics. It also provides technician training to operate the equipment it sells, although it does not train physicians or licensed doctors.

The oldest division of the Foundation, the Kukai Medicare Foundation continues the Foundation's original mission of providing care for displaced populations, the homeless, and those without standard access to medical care. It operates a number of hospitals throughout the Alliance, but is now known for its hospitals operated abroad as medical care in the Alliance has become available to the general population without the need for the Foundation's services.

The modern incarnation of the Foundation's private security personnel, the Security Force is now more akin to a private military contractor than a standard security contractor. The KFSF possesses the largest force of trained combat personnel outside of the Defense Force, and operates a number of military-grade vehicles including starships and armored ground vehicles. It is equipped with weapons produced by the Foundation's own subsidiaries as well as those purchased from non-subsidiary Alliance contractors as well as foreign manufacturers. Estimates of the strength of the KFSF vary, as the Security Force does not publicly publish a report of its assets, but it is believed to be a significant and well-trained fighting force.

The second-largest research institution after the National Defense Laboratory, Reyes Research is engaged in all manner of research from biology and chemistry to applied physics. It licenses its technologies to other subsidiaries of the Foundation as well as to other companies to provide itself a source of revenue and is considered to be largely responsible for the Foundation's continued competitiveness in so many different markets.